MICHELIN, an expert in composite solutions

Over the past 130 years, Michelin has developed unique expertise in combining materials. Today, that expertise makes it a leader in the design, production, and marketing of composite solutions that meet critical needs.

Composites are products that combine different components, which can have conflicting properties, to make it possible to design solutions for highly technically demanding applications: high heat resistance, flexibility with no deformation, rigidity and lightness, movement transmission without heating, etc. Composites can be polymer or elastomer products (rubber) and may be reinforced with textile fibers, glass, carbon, or metal to make them flexible or rigid. Tires are the perfect example of a highly complex flexible composite product with more components than a cell phone.

The Michelin group aims to become a leader in composite solutions, particularly flexible composites like coated fabrics, films, seals, conveyors, belts, hoses, and inflatable structures to meet critical needs in a vast range of industrial sectors including general industry, infrastructure, aerospace, transportation, energy, agriculture and food, and health care.

Michelin operates its composites businesses worldwide under the brands of the Fenner group, which it acquired in 2018. It took another major step in its development in June 2023, when it acquired the Faitplast, Angeloni, and Orca-Pennel&Flippo brands.

Thanks to our innovation prowess and our expertise in composites, we can improve the performance of products that perform critical functions. We want to bring new energy to our high-tech materials business, through both our R&D teams and a targeted acquisitions policy.

Maude Portigliatti Executive Vice President High-Tech Materials at Michelin - Member of the Group’s Executive Committee

Michelin, a key player in composite polymer solutions

With the acquisition of Flex Composite Group (FCG), which owns the Angeloni, Selcom, Impregnatex, Pennel&Flippo, and Faitplast brands, Michelin has created a leader in high-tech composites, fabrics, and films.

FCG is the European leader in the field, with applications for highly technical markets like the marine industry, supercars, electric vehicles, sports, and construction. It has created a wide range of composite polymer solutions, adjacent to those already developed by Michelin.

It has 400 employees and operates mainly in Europe, in high-growth markets serving customers in high-end segments.

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Revolutionary inflatable solutions

Our subsidiary MICHELIN Inflatable Solutions, which specializes in ultralight inflatable solutions, partnered with Dassault Aviation to create a technology to facilitate certification testing for the FALCON 6X twinjet. Thanks to its technology, critical systems’ resistance to electromagnetic disturbances can be tested in just three days instead of two weeks, dramatically cutting costs.

This innovative solution comprises a light structure that is easy to transport and set up in the aircraft assembly hangar and essentially works as a Faraday cage. It can be set up and operational in a single day, compared to the two years it normally takes to build a traditional cage.

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